Today's Retail Sales activity for Nov broached expectations, thus cooperating nicely with our anchor. Consumers are far less cautious than before. Thank you very much. But this blog’s about National Politics is it not?
OK, let’s veer away from recent data just a tad and look at another key development: The House Committee on Financial Services (before, the House Banking Comm) is about to acquire a new chairman, thanks to Nov/2. We celebrate this event.
Under Barney Frank the committee went awol. As a result the crisis of Q4 ‘08 was birthed.
Frank never understood the workings of Fannie & Freddie. Bush efforts to reform the twins were blocked by Frank (and his Dem counterparts in the Senate, including BO). He and Clinton and Dodd and Obama may not have known that in encouraging the twins to take just a little more risk, then just a little bit more, in the successful effort to garner black votes that they would trigger the crisis but that was the result. That is, Barney politicized the mortgage origination business and for that he should be strung up by his thumbs (or by something, you pick).
KEY: Walt Street lampreys would have been without a host if not for Frank. (McCain would have won the election if he could have articulated this to the masses. He tried once in debate, then gave up the effort.)
We spent a day in front of the House Banking Committee when under Henry Gonzalez (D - Tex). We didn’t share Henry’s politics but admired the man. He was after Greenspan and Greenspan’s Fed for their multiple indiscretions; so were we. Gonzalez understood banking. He was fair. He was also a boxer in his younger years, something a heckler should have remembered. In a restaurant in Texas one day this poor fool called Henry a communist. Henry was in his late 70's at the time. He jumped up and knocked the guy out, TR style.
Somehow Frank and his sleazy far left politics do not fit this mold, even if he has put that male prostitute business behind him. Frank is sharp but so what? He was nothing more than a pseudo community organizer acting as the helmsman of US finance - a misfit. As a pilot on Twain’s Mississippi, he was sure to run aground.
We can expect the new chair, Spencer Bachus (R - Ala) and vice chair Jeb Hensarling (R- Tex) to unsnarl most of Frank’s mistakes, beginning with the Dodd-Frank act, “to correct, replace or repeal job-killing provisions that unnecessarily punish small businesses and community banks that did nothing to cause the financial crisis,” as Bachus told the Wash Times.
Then onto the twins.
Robert Craven
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Monday, December 6, 2010
Reluctantly an American
Mark Halperin, sr political analyst for TIME laments this week about his one-time idol, Obama. Everybody’s turned against him, Halperin writes, “Liberals believe he is an over-compromising wimp.....the business community considers Obama ignorant... a socialist at worst....The media..now see the president as incompetent and overwhelmed.” Poor Mark. He hopes in desperation that Obama will capture bin Laden, or preside over the fall of Iran; something, anything, “to reintroduce him to the American people and show the strengths he demonstrated as a ...candidate.”
Well, not exactly the “strengths” demonstrated as a candidate, but the lies demonstrated as a candidate. And he cannot be “reintroduced” because he never was one of us. He is only reluctantly an American.
His parents (a habitually drunk, polygamist, socialist father and a hater of America / a libertine, socialist mother and a hater of America), his associations with other America haters, with convicted terrorists, are all formative events.
Few of those who were taken in at the voting booth bothered to look past BO’s half color. If they had, they might have encountered this: From Stanley Kurtz, “The afternoon of April 1, 1983, Barack Obama, then a senior at Columbia University, made his way into the Great Hall of Manhattan’s Cooper Union to attend a ‘Socialist Scholars Conference.’”
“The conference itself was not a secret, but it held a secret, for it was there that a demoralized and frustrated socialist movement largely set aside strategies of nationalization and turned increasingly to local organizing as a way around the Reagan presidency — and its own spotty reputation,” he continues. “In the early 1980s, America’s socialists discovered what Saul Alinsky had always known: ‘Community organizing’ is a euphemism behind which advocates of a radical vision of America could advance their cause without the bothersome label ‘socialist’ drawing adverse attention to their efforts.”
“The 1983 Cooper Union Conference, billed as a tribute to Marx, was precisely when Obama discovered his vocation for community organizing,” notes Kurtz.
A regular American guy? A patriot? How so?
An extremist, a radical as we have warned all along? Looks like it.
Robert Craven
Well, not exactly the “strengths” demonstrated as a candidate, but the lies demonstrated as a candidate. And he cannot be “reintroduced” because he never was one of us. He is only reluctantly an American.
His parents (a habitually drunk, polygamist, socialist father and a hater of America / a libertine, socialist mother and a hater of America), his associations with other America haters, with convicted terrorists, are all formative events.
Few of those who were taken in at the voting booth bothered to look past BO’s half color. If they had, they might have encountered this: From Stanley Kurtz, “The afternoon of April 1, 1983, Barack Obama, then a senior at Columbia University, made his way into the Great Hall of Manhattan’s Cooper Union to attend a ‘Socialist Scholars Conference.’”
“The conference itself was not a secret, but it held a secret, for it was there that a demoralized and frustrated socialist movement largely set aside strategies of nationalization and turned increasingly to local organizing as a way around the Reagan presidency — and its own spotty reputation,” he continues. “In the early 1980s, America’s socialists discovered what Saul Alinsky had always known: ‘Community organizing’ is a euphemism behind which advocates of a radical vision of America could advance their cause without the bothersome label ‘socialist’ drawing adverse attention to their efforts.”
“The 1983 Cooper Union Conference, billed as a tribute to Marx, was precisely when Obama discovered his vocation for community organizing,” notes Kurtz.
A regular American guy? A patriot? How so?
An extremist, a radical as we have warned all along? Looks like it.
Robert Craven
Public Sector Unions, Obama and the Economy
Reasonable folk are amazed at the frolics of the left. Why did so much of the stimulus money go to union projects? Is that why it hasn’t worked? Why to Obama is American business simply an afterthought? Why is BO’s main focus on labor and green issues? Why is BO in battle with the private sector, with free enterprise?
Silly us, we thought the present administration had the interests of the American people and their economy in mind. Apparently not. Some of the most useful insight has come from Dem’s themselves, recently chastised.
John Kotkin of Chapman Univ is one of these, highlighting the above noted flaw. He writes that, “Modern-day liberalism... is often ambivalent about expanding the economy — preferring a mix of redistribution with redirection along green lines. Its base of political shock troops, public-employee unions, appears only tangentially interested in the health of the overall economy.” Well natch. These types can’t compete with free enterprise. Ever see a city street crew at work? Or, what’s orange and sleeps three? A Caltrans truck. Enough said. The private sector is a huge threat to these guys. Think BO is going to get away with seeing to the welfare of the private sector over these clowns?
Kotkin continues, “This contrasts with the far broader support for the familiar form of liberalism forged from the 1930s to the 1990s. Democratic presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Bill Clinton focused largely on basic middle-class concerns — such as expanding economic opportunity, property ownership and growth.” Yes they did, but that party was hijacked.
There’s thought and reflection here to be sure. Key is that the modern left’s priorities are misaligned, never mind the method. BO not only screwed up, he didn’t really care in the first place, or if he did his being in hock to the unions precluded any real solution. For BO to have cut taxes then got out of the way would have alienated his party base, big time. Never waste a crisis. Use it to create a program to stimulate the unions.
Again from Kotkin, “Public sector unions are not just the base of the party -- they're the base of the base. As the 2010 campaign ground on, other supporters and donors, notably Wall Street, had abandoned Democratic candidates. But unions representing teachers and state and local employees have doubled down. The National Education Association, the largest U.S. teachers union, spent more than $3.4 million on ad buys and direct-mail campaigns for the key electioneering period from Sept. 1 to Oct. 14. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees spent $2.1 million in that period. Union members and their families are key to the Democratic ‘ground game’ for Nov. 2.”
May thanks to the left and BO and particularly to his state & local employee union pals for their fine contribution to the better interests of this country.
Robert Craven
Silly us, we thought the present administration had the interests of the American people and their economy in mind. Apparently not. Some of the most useful insight has come from Dem’s themselves, recently chastised.
John Kotkin of Chapman Univ is one of these, highlighting the above noted flaw. He writes that, “Modern-day liberalism... is often ambivalent about expanding the economy — preferring a mix of redistribution with redirection along green lines. Its base of political shock troops, public-employee unions, appears only tangentially interested in the health of the overall economy.” Well natch. These types can’t compete with free enterprise. Ever see a city street crew at work? Or, what’s orange and sleeps three? A Caltrans truck. Enough said. The private sector is a huge threat to these guys. Think BO is going to get away with seeing to the welfare of the private sector over these clowns?
Kotkin continues, “This contrasts with the far broader support for the familiar form of liberalism forged from the 1930s to the 1990s. Democratic presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Bill Clinton focused largely on basic middle-class concerns — such as expanding economic opportunity, property ownership and growth.” Yes they did, but that party was hijacked.
There’s thought and reflection here to be sure. Key is that the modern left’s priorities are misaligned, never mind the method. BO not only screwed up, he didn’t really care in the first place, or if he did his being in hock to the unions precluded any real solution. For BO to have cut taxes then got out of the way would have alienated his party base, big time. Never waste a crisis. Use it to create a program to stimulate the unions.
Again from Kotkin, “Public sector unions are not just the base of the party -- they're the base of the base. As the 2010 campaign ground on, other supporters and donors, notably Wall Street, had abandoned Democratic candidates. But unions representing teachers and state and local employees have doubled down. The National Education Association, the largest U.S. teachers union, spent more than $3.4 million on ad buys and direct-mail campaigns for the key electioneering period from Sept. 1 to Oct. 14. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees spent $2.1 million in that period. Union members and their families are key to the Democratic ‘ground game’ for Nov. 2.”
May thanks to the left and BO and particularly to his state & local employee union pals for their fine contribution to the better interests of this country.
Robert Craven
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Fodder
Most Dems have regained consciousness but still remain dazed, bewildered, deer-in-the-headlights.
Not the far left, not those extremists who until recently controlled the party. They’re guerilla fighters. They’ll sacrifice their own kind for the cause. All of us have just witnessed such an event.
They’re Mac in Steinbeck’s In Dubious Battle, the communist labor organizer who like Obama’s Rham Emanuel would, “never waste a crisis,” this one the tension in CA agriculture in the 30's. Mac used farm workers, fresh from the Dust Bowl, as tools for his greater “cause.” Jim was one of these and was sacrificed one night in a peach orchard, in an encounter with a shotgun.
There are plenty of Jim’s now; they’re everywhere, those moderate Dem’s just sacrificed by radical operatives. They have been beaten nearly to death, fodder for the party machine.
This time the party went too far, alienating most of its members, just as Mac finally crossed the line, ignoring even human life in the quest for an abstract. And this is exactly why last year we could predict, correctly as it turned out, that Obama (who is the perfect stand-in for McGovern or Martine Aubry) meant the death of the Democratic Party in its then present form.
Robert Craven
Not the far left, not those extremists who until recently controlled the party. They’re guerilla fighters. They’ll sacrifice their own kind for the cause. All of us have just witnessed such an event.
They’re Mac in Steinbeck’s In Dubious Battle, the communist labor organizer who like Obama’s Rham Emanuel would, “never waste a crisis,” this one the tension in CA agriculture in the 30's. Mac used farm workers, fresh from the Dust Bowl, as tools for his greater “cause.” Jim was one of these and was sacrificed one night in a peach orchard, in an encounter with a shotgun.
There are plenty of Jim’s now; they’re everywhere, those moderate Dem’s just sacrificed by radical operatives. They have been beaten nearly to death, fodder for the party machine.
This time the party went too far, alienating most of its members, just as Mac finally crossed the line, ignoring even human life in the quest for an abstract. And this is exactly why last year we could predict, correctly as it turned out, that Obama (who is the perfect stand-in for McGovern or Martine Aubry) meant the death of the Democratic Party in its then present form.
Robert Craven
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Taken
In today’s Wash Post two Dem polsters, Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen write that, “... the president has largely lost the consent of the governed. The midterm elections were effectively a referendum on the Obama presidency. And even if it was not an endorsement of a Republican vision for America, the drubbing the Democrats took was certainly a vote of no confidence in Obama and his party. The president has almost no credibility left with Republicans and little with independents,” and we might add, little with moderate Democrats. For many of these, it’s more than disappointment; they hate the guy.
These authors conclude that Obama should announce “immediately” that he won’t run in 2012. That way he can make the tough decisions, “standing above politics, seeking to forge consensus.” He could, “make hard decisions about Iran, North Korea and Afghanistan based on what is reasonable and responsible for the United States, without the political constraints of a looming election.”
Won’t happen guys.
These two lament in the article that Obama’s actions have not been consistent with his campaign rhetoric. Caddell, Schoen and the rest, the taken, the willfully blind may have done their own research but they ignored the results if they did.
Obama acted perfectly in character all along, first saying what was needed to get elected, which by the way included making a bargain with guilty whites.
Now he’s acting just as he did as a state and later US senator - partisan, divisive, and oblivious to the real world concerns of most Americans. Our nursery pals and the rest invented a candidate. If Caddell and Schoen think Obama is listening, they repeat that mistake.
This is not about what is best for the country for goodness sake; it is about what is best for Obama. Where in his writings, his partisan voting record, his past associations or even his family background is it that he or his family ever maintained the interests of the United States as a priority? (See our Mischief of Nov/3 for more on that).
Background: To Obama, the United States is an unsavory institution. We noted family earlier because most agree family has formative dimensions. We know that his dad, a perennially drunk polygamist, was a hater of the West because he said so. We know that his mom while in Indonesia prevented BO from associating with other Americans as these were, “not my people.” Correct. Her people were the hate-America types, socialists, Marxists, the same crew BO chose to pal around with in his later years, his adult life. From Janice Shaw: “America’s supposed decline....is for our president — in accordance with all he was taught by his hate-mongering pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright — a matter of the 'chickens coming home to roost.'"
Do Caddell and Schoen really think this guy is going to do what is best for America? Probably not.
Robert Craven
These authors conclude that Obama should announce “immediately” that he won’t run in 2012. That way he can make the tough decisions, “standing above politics, seeking to forge consensus.” He could, “make hard decisions about Iran, North Korea and Afghanistan based on what is reasonable and responsible for the United States, without the political constraints of a looming election.”
Won’t happen guys.
These two lament in the article that Obama’s actions have not been consistent with his campaign rhetoric. Caddell, Schoen and the rest, the taken, the willfully blind may have done their own research but they ignored the results if they did.
Obama acted perfectly in character all along, first saying what was needed to get elected, which by the way included making a bargain with guilty whites.
Now he’s acting just as he did as a state and later US senator - partisan, divisive, and oblivious to the real world concerns of most Americans. Our nursery pals and the rest invented a candidate. If Caddell and Schoen think Obama is listening, they repeat that mistake.
This is not about what is best for the country for goodness sake; it is about what is best for Obama. Where in his writings, his partisan voting record, his past associations or even his family background is it that he or his family ever maintained the interests of the United States as a priority? (See our Mischief of Nov/3 for more on that).
Background: To Obama, the United States is an unsavory institution. We noted family earlier because most agree family has formative dimensions. We know that his dad, a perennially drunk polygamist, was a hater of the West because he said so. We know that his mom while in Indonesia prevented BO from associating with other Americans as these were, “not my people.” Correct. Her people were the hate-America types, socialists, Marxists, the same crew BO chose to pal around with in his later years, his adult life. From Janice Shaw: “America’s supposed decline....is for our president — in accordance with all he was taught by his hate-mongering pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright — a matter of the 'chickens coming home to roost.'"
Do Caddell and Schoen really think this guy is going to do what is best for America? Probably not.
Robert Craven
Saturday, November 13, 2010
An Education - At Our Expense
Obama laid waste to our economy. He tanked US prestige in the international community. There is no forgiving that.
BO experimented domestically at our expense, aiming to level the meritocracy he regards as offensive.
Next, he ignored fiscal lessons learned long ago. Even Europe looks sober in light of Obama’s recent binge.
Now we see the headline - “Obama To Be Back On Top.” What’s that mean? So now that he’s the last guy on the block to catch on and maybe apes Clinton, we should forgive him? Never. We want his transgressions to plague him every single day of his remaining term and we want him tossed to the dogs come 2012.
So it’s ok for him to waste two years? Water’s wet in the real world. For two years he tried to prove otherwise, the abstract. Now that he may come to agree, we should celebrate?
Are we here simply to provide therapy for BO so that he may prosper? Is all this really just about one guy? Sacrifice the country so that one half-black guy can achieve fame, so that guilty lefties can feel better about themselves?
Obama is without a sense of either history or economics yet was set free by swooning coeds and nursery types to have his way, to mold as he thought fit a country and a people and enterprises with whom in fact he has very little in common. That, compounded by his chronic lack of judgement explains why he so dangerous.
He is naive, even childish, a product of the faculty lounge. For example, from Vic Hansen, “Obama seems to think that making money is a casual enterprise, not nearly so difficult as community organizing, and without the intellectual rigor of academia — as if profits leap out of the head of Zeus.”
Then offshore, following the example set by his father Obama promotes American guilt at every stop; again parroting his father, he’s a paladin for anticolonialism, lecturing the Western powers that they prosper on the backs of others.
And now after seeing their party murdered, most Dems hope BO will abandon his adolescent ways, that is, the ways of the progressive, the looniest of this bunch. We have predicted that won’t happen and why and we darn sure hope we’re right. We don’t want to see BO move to center for goodness sake. We’ve already had to pay a heck of a price. Why pay for his education? We want to see BO and his wife and all of her 22 assistants (who cost us $900M annually) get the boot.
We’re told that we don’t have to respect the individual but always respect the office. This guy’s making that out to be a chore.
Robert Craven
BO experimented domestically at our expense, aiming to level the meritocracy he regards as offensive.
Next, he ignored fiscal lessons learned long ago. Even Europe looks sober in light of Obama’s recent binge.
Now we see the headline - “Obama To Be Back On Top.” What’s that mean? So now that he’s the last guy on the block to catch on and maybe apes Clinton, we should forgive him? Never. We want his transgressions to plague him every single day of his remaining term and we want him tossed to the dogs come 2012.
So it’s ok for him to waste two years? Water’s wet in the real world. For two years he tried to prove otherwise, the abstract. Now that he may come to agree, we should celebrate?
Are we here simply to provide therapy for BO so that he may prosper? Is all this really just about one guy? Sacrifice the country so that one half-black guy can achieve fame, so that guilty lefties can feel better about themselves?
Obama is without a sense of either history or economics yet was set free by swooning coeds and nursery types to have his way, to mold as he thought fit a country and a people and enterprises with whom in fact he has very little in common. That, compounded by his chronic lack of judgement explains why he so dangerous.
He is naive, even childish, a product of the faculty lounge. For example, from Vic Hansen, “Obama seems to think that making money is a casual enterprise, not nearly so difficult as community organizing, and without the intellectual rigor of academia — as if profits leap out of the head of Zeus.”
Then offshore, following the example set by his father Obama promotes American guilt at every stop; again parroting his father, he’s a paladin for anticolonialism, lecturing the Western powers that they prosper on the backs of others.
And now after seeing their party murdered, most Dems hope BO will abandon his adolescent ways, that is, the ways of the progressive, the looniest of this bunch. We have predicted that won’t happen and why and we darn sure hope we’re right. We don’t want to see BO move to center for goodness sake. We’ve already had to pay a heck of a price. Why pay for his education? We want to see BO and his wife and all of her 22 assistants (who cost us $900M annually) get the boot.
We’re told that we don’t have to respect the individual but always respect the office. This guy’s making that out to be a chore.
Robert Craven
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Handicapped - Race and the Economy
The past two years the Democrats have ministered to the US economy pretty much as they practice their race policy, pretty much as they minister to the blacks. Blacks are treated as a population somehow handicapped, disadvantaged, and key - in need of gov’t guidance and support. A few fall for this nonsense; this serves the party purposes quite nicely. (This stealth approach is at variance with earlier Democratic policy. Then, slavery was actually part of the party platform. At least these folk were honest, cretins to be sure but honest.)
Obama and crew predictably treated the US economy in similar fashion, in doctrinaire style - as if it were handicapped. Everything done by the majority past two years is a perfect fit.
First, the economy was visited by a crisis, this the result of Dem malfeasance regarding supervision of the twins, the discharging of prudence in mortgage origination. The purpose - to buy black votes.
Next, a resuscitation was hampered by the same policy the Dem’s apply to race, and with the same result. It amounts to nothing more than an intrusion, a lack of respect for sake of politics. The party has no decency. Set upon by BO and his type, reminded of (manufactured) handicaps, burdened by layer up layer of interference, and layer upon layer of uncertainty, the economy struggles (or did).
Gov’t spending does not create jobs on net, does not and never has reduced unemployment, at best acts as a wash, at worst a retardant. Some of us knew that early on; all but the most willfully blind know it now. Special privileges, quotas and bureaucratic interference in matters of race - the same result. Both sound great but never work. Money thrown at bigger and better public schools in the ghetto for example might as well be destined for the outhouse.
So a recovery has been thwarted by the left. To simply stand aside, lower taxes and hold on - no way, a violation of party identity, and for BO, an erosion of his political base.
Yet BO’s accomplices cannot stand still, even now. The Fed, having no fear of inflation is buying billions of US debt in an attempt to fire the system (the money comes from..... right - out of thin air). This is again simply interference. Still lower real interest rates in the US will deplete the incomes of savers and pensioners but do little to spark growth, not now. We know the Fed so we know this cute little trick will make little difference to a recovery but it will create distortions, $ moves for example, perhaps higher commodity prices, and perhaps stagflation to boot. Such a waste.
Renew the tax cuts, remove employer uncertainty and you have it - vigor. Simple. Yet such a common sense approach is nothing less than an apostasy to those scoundrels who traffic in the fraud that things are just so, so difficult, so complex that only they, the anointed, carry the wisdom and grace to deliver; it is only they who can provide salvation.
These misfits are soon to be gone. This is why we are optimistic for 2011 and beyond.
Robert Craven
Obama and crew predictably treated the US economy in similar fashion, in doctrinaire style - as if it were handicapped. Everything done by the majority past two years is a perfect fit.
First, the economy was visited by a crisis, this the result of Dem malfeasance regarding supervision of the twins, the discharging of prudence in mortgage origination. The purpose - to buy black votes.
Next, a resuscitation was hampered by the same policy the Dem’s apply to race, and with the same result. It amounts to nothing more than an intrusion, a lack of respect for sake of politics. The party has no decency. Set upon by BO and his type, reminded of (manufactured) handicaps, burdened by layer up layer of interference, and layer upon layer of uncertainty, the economy struggles (or did).
Gov’t spending does not create jobs on net, does not and never has reduced unemployment, at best acts as a wash, at worst a retardant. Some of us knew that early on; all but the most willfully blind know it now. Special privileges, quotas and bureaucratic interference in matters of race - the same result. Both sound great but never work. Money thrown at bigger and better public schools in the ghetto for example might as well be destined for the outhouse.
So a recovery has been thwarted by the left. To simply stand aside, lower taxes and hold on - no way, a violation of party identity, and for BO, an erosion of his political base.
Yet BO’s accomplices cannot stand still, even now. The Fed, having no fear of inflation is buying billions of US debt in an attempt to fire the system (the money comes from..... right - out of thin air). This is again simply interference. Still lower real interest rates in the US will deplete the incomes of savers and pensioners but do little to spark growth, not now. We know the Fed so we know this cute little trick will make little difference to a recovery but it will create distortions, $ moves for example, perhaps higher commodity prices, and perhaps stagflation to boot. Such a waste.
Renew the tax cuts, remove employer uncertainty and you have it - vigor. Simple. Yet such a common sense approach is nothing less than an apostasy to those scoundrels who traffic in the fraud that things are just so, so difficult, so complex that only they, the anointed, carry the wisdom and grace to deliver; it is only they who can provide salvation.
These misfits are soon to be gone. This is why we are optimistic for 2011 and beyond.
Robert Craven
Thursday, November 4, 2010
My Son-In-Law
My son-in-law arrived tonight, to Savannah, safe and sound; my daughter Kim and granddaughter Reagan were there to meet him - Carter, an Apache pilot, sent to Afg to protect our ground forces, to escort our medivacs, to rain utter destruction upon those hell bent to destroy us.
It’s very simple, but made out by those who quail at confrontation, as does Obama, to be just so, so complex.
There is a so-called “religion” which calls for the re-ordering of the civilized world, at gun-point if necessary. Not just extremists, all of them, the whole shebang - that’s their anchor (and a pedophilic butcher is their prophet). That would be the muslims.
From an inheritance linked to the dark ages these individuals have inconvenienced all of us. For most of us it means a longer wait at the airport; for my son-in-law, a life-and-death struggle every single day, every single mission. He’s seen these misanthropes join funeral processions to obtain cover; he’s seen them force innocents to take bullets that they might be saved.
And how does he return to this Dear Country? With a great disgust for Obama and his ritual of appeasement; with a disgust for the sanitized rules of combat which not only endangered him and his comrades, but profoundly handicap our efforts there.
Robert Craven
It’s very simple, but made out by those who quail at confrontation, as does Obama, to be just so, so complex.
There is a so-called “religion” which calls for the re-ordering of the civilized world, at gun-point if necessary. Not just extremists, all of them, the whole shebang - that’s their anchor (and a pedophilic butcher is their prophet). That would be the muslims.
From an inheritance linked to the dark ages these individuals have inconvenienced all of us. For most of us it means a longer wait at the airport; for my son-in-law, a life-and-death struggle every single day, every single mission. He’s seen these misanthropes join funeral processions to obtain cover; he’s seen them force innocents to take bullets that they might be saved.
And how does he return to this Dear Country? With a great disgust for Obama and his ritual of appeasement; with a disgust for the sanitized rules of combat which not only endangered him and his comrades, but profoundly handicap our efforts there.
Robert Craven
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Mischief
In Forbes, Dinesh D’Sousa, pres of Kings College, NYC writes of a, “... philandering, inebriated African socialist who raged against the world for denying him the realization of his anticolonial ambitions, (who) is now setting the nation's agenda through the reincarnation of his dreams in his son.” D’Sousa reflects on dad Obama and his campaign against colonialism; the US being the only superpower, that must now mean us and our prospering on the backs of others. And indeed, Obama junior’s actions do seem to fit - the tearing down of American greatness, the obsequious posturing to thugs offshore. D’Sousa continues, “A anticolonialist believes that since the rich have prospered at the expense of others, their wealth doesn't really belong to them; therefore whatever can be extracted from them is automatically just. Recall what Obama Sr. said in his 1965 paper: There is no tax rate too high, and even a 100% rate is justified under certain circumstances.” BO’s tax policy!
Well, likely Dinesh has something. His central point is that at first dad Obama appears a strange choice for the inspirational hero BO repeatedly claims him to be, until one understands that it was dad’s ravings about the cause of anticolonialism that provided the inspiration. It’s certainly not dad’s character or family values, which are down right scary, actually tabloid. This polygamist was a habitual drunk driver who murdered a man in one accident, severed his own legs in another and finally smacked into a tree, thus ending his fine career, which included wife beating. One of BO’s half brothers, also a polygamist and 52, just married a 19 yr old, nearly putting Jerry Lee to shame. We could go on with the fun, but won’t.
So yes, “In the anticolonial view, America is now the rogue elephant that subjugates and tramples the people of the world.” Seems a fit with Obama Jr.
Before encountering the D’Sousa article this pm we had earlier pondered what might be the key giveaway to BO’s real intent, his domestic agenda (taking the flip side of D’Sousa’s piece). We arrived at one single sentence, uttered by Obama Apr/29/10. Most we are sure recall the comment - “I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money.” This statement got a good deal of press early on but it was mostly surface feeding. In fact we believe it is this sentence that telegraphs more about BO’s corrosive intent on American greatness, about his role as he sees it than an other single clue. Dinesh may agree.
These words my friends can only belong to a committed planner. We know from history (and China, India and half of S America from experience) that planned societies fail. They fail because no one single individual can be that smart. And even if he were, he’s human, thus has pals and enemies. Planning fails because planning involves decision making to arbitrarily exclude some and include or reward others. It follows that power over individual freedoms is gathered in the planning office. It always begins in benign form (ex., BO’s health heist) and ends in more execrable form such as communism or fascism. In fact, Hitler began this journey through national health care.
There can be only one final outcome of a planned society - a police state.
From Hayek’s The Road To Serfdom we read that, “In Germany and Italy the Nazis and Fascists did, indeed, not have much to invent. The usages of the new political movements which pervaded all aspects of life had in both countries already been introduced by the socialists. The idea of a political party which embraces all activities of the individual from the cradle to the grave, which claims to guide his views on everything, and which delights in making all problems questions of the party was first put into practice by the socialists.”
We know, we know, “no way in the US,” you say. But in fact there is a way and it is Obama. The statement, “I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money,” is chilling in its implications and a perfect fit to behavior described by Hayek. One individual, seemingly ordained by some greater power to decide just when and to where you are to redirect your income stream. That is, he knows and you don’t what is good for you. He will make that decision. This is how this guy thinks folks! Ponder this for a moment. We don’t know for sure if it’s due to his old man’s inspiration but it’s there and it’s poison.
Earlier such a thing has resided in America only in the abstract, in faculty rooms or at the nursery, never operational. It now resides in substantive form in the White House, diluted perhaps by events of Nov/2 but still potent and dangerous.
Robert Craven
Well, likely Dinesh has something. His central point is that at first dad Obama appears a strange choice for the inspirational hero BO repeatedly claims him to be, until one understands that it was dad’s ravings about the cause of anticolonialism that provided the inspiration. It’s certainly not dad’s character or family values, which are down right scary, actually tabloid. This polygamist was a habitual drunk driver who murdered a man in one accident, severed his own legs in another and finally smacked into a tree, thus ending his fine career, which included wife beating. One of BO’s half brothers, also a polygamist and 52, just married a 19 yr old, nearly putting Jerry Lee to shame. We could go on with the fun, but won’t.
So yes, “In the anticolonial view, America is now the rogue elephant that subjugates and tramples the people of the world.” Seems a fit with Obama Jr.
Before encountering the D’Sousa article this pm we had earlier pondered what might be the key giveaway to BO’s real intent, his domestic agenda (taking the flip side of D’Sousa’s piece). We arrived at one single sentence, uttered by Obama Apr/29/10. Most we are sure recall the comment - “I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money.” This statement got a good deal of press early on but it was mostly surface feeding. In fact we believe it is this sentence that telegraphs more about BO’s corrosive intent on American greatness, about his role as he sees it than an other single clue. Dinesh may agree.
These words my friends can only belong to a committed planner. We know from history (and China, India and half of S America from experience) that planned societies fail. They fail because no one single individual can be that smart. And even if he were, he’s human, thus has pals and enemies. Planning fails because planning involves decision making to arbitrarily exclude some and include or reward others. It follows that power over individual freedoms is gathered in the planning office. It always begins in benign form (ex., BO’s health heist) and ends in more execrable form such as communism or fascism. In fact, Hitler began this journey through national health care.
There can be only one final outcome of a planned society - a police state.
From Hayek’s The Road To Serfdom we read that, “In Germany and Italy the Nazis and Fascists did, indeed, not have much to invent. The usages of the new political movements which pervaded all aspects of life had in both countries already been introduced by the socialists. The idea of a political party which embraces all activities of the individual from the cradle to the grave, which claims to guide his views on everything, and which delights in making all problems questions of the party was first put into practice by the socialists.”
We know, we know, “no way in the US,” you say. But in fact there is a way and it is Obama. The statement, “I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money,” is chilling in its implications and a perfect fit to behavior described by Hayek. One individual, seemingly ordained by some greater power to decide just when and to where you are to redirect your income stream. That is, he knows and you don’t what is good for you. He will make that decision. This is how this guy thinks folks! Ponder this for a moment. We don’t know for sure if it’s due to his old man’s inspiration but it’s there and it’s poison.
Earlier such a thing has resided in America only in the abstract, in faculty rooms or at the nursery, never operational. It now resides in substantive form in the White House, diluted perhaps by events of Nov/2 but still potent and dangerous.
Robert Craven
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
WRONG
Josiah Whitney was chief of the CA Geological Survey from 1860 - 1874. Whitney maintained that Yosemite Valley was created by a cataclysmic sinking of the valley floor. John Muir maintained that the valley was carved by glacial action. Whitney derided Muir as an “ignoramus” and a “mere sheepherder.” Whitney's survey reports suppressed evidence of glaciers, and he never abandoned his viewpoint despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Whitney was more than stubborn and wrong, he was vindictive and a slanderer.
What we witnessed tonight was a similar refutation of an earlier mistaken view. As was Whitney, how could so many be so obviously wrong for so long? Easy. They were at half traction until two years ago. The nursery types, the far left, were never before held accountable, their dogma never closely examined. Suddenly it gained footage. Next were the repercussions. This is what gagged most Americans, exposing the lie.
Muir first, then most other grounded observers saw the fraud of Whitney’s argument. But to admit to a failed career? Whitney could not summon the courage. Nor can our lefty friends. Instead, as did Whitney they strike out.
Too bad. They will remain for years to come only outliers, ignored, bitter and forgotten.
Robert Craven
What we witnessed tonight was a similar refutation of an earlier mistaken view. As was Whitney, how could so many be so obviously wrong for so long? Easy. They were at half traction until two years ago. The nursery types, the far left, were never before held accountable, their dogma never closely examined. Suddenly it gained footage. Next were the repercussions. This is what gagged most Americans, exposing the lie.
Muir first, then most other grounded observers saw the fraud of Whitney’s argument. But to admit to a failed career? Whitney could not summon the courage. Nor can our lefty friends. Instead, as did Whitney they strike out.
Too bad. They will remain for years to come only outliers, ignored, bitter and forgotten.
Robert Craven
Sunday, October 31, 2010
An Education, Sort of
Most of us are not economists nor historians. Yet a surface familiarization with both disciplines provided a mighty assist in understanding, in fact in predicting recent events in national politics.
The “dreamers,” the feel-good types ignore both; these who dismiss historical economic precedent and so never bother to consider policy result have just received an education, gratis of Obama.
Given the escape from McGovern there’s been nothing like it, not FDR, not Wilson. Obama-like policy wreaked havoc with the UK post WWII, and then most of Europe; yet lessons learned there went unheaded in America on election day, 2008.
Most one-time Obama supporters have now seen first hand the object of the warnings of von Mises, Friedman, Hayek and others. Obama's threatened their personal liberty; he's hit - and this really counts - their pocket books. With the exception of a few far-left looney tunes the rest will never again pull the trigger for a statist. Well, maybe never-ever but at least not until they or their kids forget, falling prey once again to what seems the easy way out.
For now we are about to fetch a grounding; damage is to be undone, repairs to be made.
Robert Craven
The “dreamers,” the feel-good types ignore both; these who dismiss historical economic precedent and so never bother to consider policy result have just received an education, gratis of Obama.
Given the escape from McGovern there’s been nothing like it, not FDR, not Wilson. Obama-like policy wreaked havoc with the UK post WWII, and then most of Europe; yet lessons learned there went unheaded in America on election day, 2008.
Most one-time Obama supporters have now seen first hand the object of the warnings of von Mises, Friedman, Hayek and others. Obama's threatened their personal liberty; he's hit - and this really counts - their pocket books. With the exception of a few far-left looney tunes the rest will never again pull the trigger for a statist. Well, maybe never-ever but at least not until they or their kids forget, falling prey once again to what seems the easy way out.
For now we are about to fetch a grounding; damage is to be undone, repairs to be made.
Robert Craven
Friday, October 29, 2010
Don't Blame Us
Sen Kerry this morning, “We're in a period of know-nothingism in the country, where truth and science and facts don't weigh in....” Oh, but of course, another case of insufferable moral superiority. They’re just so wise these types, so given to profound insight - the anointed. What a crock.
Us know-nothings. Right. You mean those of us who knew nothing about the gov’t creating jobs on net, except that it can’t? You mean those of us who knew nothing about a health bill except that it was flawed, and then complained as it was jammed down our throats? You mean those of us who know nothing about business except that it is being hurt by BO’s legislation; you mean those of us who know nothing about the economy, except that a recovery is stalled because of the uncertainty surrounding energy policy, health care, housing and your outlandish spending, that economy and those businesses, that we nothing about? You mean those business leaders who know nothing at all about business but who without exception condemn your policies?
And by the way John. Us know-nothings also know perfectly well that your problem is not the Tea Party types nor the Republicans; your problem is with your own kind; it is the Democratic rank and file you and BO have ostracized, the thousands of careers you and BO have ended.
Don’t blame us.
Robert Craven
Us know-nothings. Right. You mean those of us who knew nothing about the gov’t creating jobs on net, except that it can’t? You mean those of us who knew nothing about a health bill except that it was flawed, and then complained as it was jammed down our throats? You mean those of us who know nothing about business except that it is being hurt by BO’s legislation; you mean those of us who know nothing about the economy, except that a recovery is stalled because of the uncertainty surrounding energy policy, health care, housing and your outlandish spending, that economy and those businesses, that we nothing about? You mean those business leaders who know nothing at all about business but who without exception condemn your policies?
And by the way John. Us know-nothings also know perfectly well that your problem is not the Tea Party types nor the Republicans; your problem is with your own kind; it is the Democratic rank and file you and BO have ostracized, the thousands of careers you and BO have ended.
Don’t blame us.
Robert Craven
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
The Fire of a Thousand Suns
What we will witness next Tues is the measure of rage - the fire of a thousand suns -of those who have been taken, those who voted for Obama. Being disappointed is one thing; being made out to be a fool is quite another.
It is true the BO prevaricated just a tad in the primary; almost everything he said was in conflict with his past. The fawning types believed it anyway. Big problem. BO was a run-of-the-mill Chicago politician. Every body knew that, or should have. When he ran for the Ill senate in 1996 he sued to remove opponents from the ballot. In his campaign for the US Senate in 2004, the divorce records of both his primary and general election opponents were mysteriously leaked, Chicago style.
But then we all knew that. And we all knew that in the Senate his voting record was the most partisan of any senator, either side, that there wasn’t a spending bill he didn’t embrace nor an entitlement, nor a union payoff that he didn’t endorse. And we all knew that he blocked every effort to reform the twins - ground zero.
Still, folks pulled the trigger. One was Maureen “Moe” Tucker, former drummer for the Velvet Underground. Peggy Noonan highlighted her experience the other day in the WSJ. "Anyone who thinks I'm crazy about Sarah Palin, Bush, etc., has made quite the presumption. I have voted Democrat all my life, until I started listening to what Obama was promising and started wondering how the hell will this utopian dream be paid for?”
So there you have it. Moe just figured out she’s been had. It was fine to argue lefty politics when in the abstract; once these policies gained traction, became reality, Moe and the rest are hunting for the covers.
The rest of us - simply amused.
Robert Craven
It is true the BO prevaricated just a tad in the primary; almost everything he said was in conflict with his past. The fawning types believed it anyway. Big problem. BO was a run-of-the-mill Chicago politician. Every body knew that, or should have. When he ran for the Ill senate in 1996 he sued to remove opponents from the ballot. In his campaign for the US Senate in 2004, the divorce records of both his primary and general election opponents were mysteriously leaked, Chicago style.
But then we all knew that. And we all knew that in the Senate his voting record was the most partisan of any senator, either side, that there wasn’t a spending bill he didn’t embrace nor an entitlement, nor a union payoff that he didn’t endorse. And we all knew that he blocked every effort to reform the twins - ground zero.
Still, folks pulled the trigger. One was Maureen “Moe” Tucker, former drummer for the Velvet Underground. Peggy Noonan highlighted her experience the other day in the WSJ. "Anyone who thinks I'm crazy about Sarah Palin, Bush, etc., has made quite the presumption. I have voted Democrat all my life, until I started listening to what Obama was promising and started wondering how the hell will this utopian dream be paid for?”
So there you have it. Moe just figured out she’s been had. It was fine to argue lefty politics when in the abstract; once these policies gained traction, became reality, Moe and the rest are hunting for the covers.
The rest of us - simply amused.
Robert Craven
Monday, October 18, 2010
A Lesson From The Rescue
"It was like the Chilean miners, but he, being the man he is, rolled up his sleeves and said 'I am going to get us out of this hole,'" Sen. Reid (D-NV) said in Las Vegas on Sunday, referring to Obama.
Quite the contrary is true. It was not like the Chilean miners; BO in no way is going to get anyone out of any hole. Only profit-driven innovation got the miners out. Obama has buried the US, not saved it, by trying to kill the very same.
Daniel Henninger writes that there was nothing Obama-like about it; it was in fact all about the Center Rock drill bit. “This is the miracle bit that drilled down to the trapped miners. Center Rock Inc. is a private company in Berlin, Pa. It has 74 employees. The drill's rig came from Schramm Inc. in West Chester, Pa. Seeing the disaster, Center Rock's president, Brandon Fisher, called the Chileans to offer his drill. Chile accepted. The miners are alive. The Center Rock drill is in fact a piece of tough technology developed by a small company in it for the money, for profit. That's why they innovated down-the-hole hammer drilling. If they make money, they can do more innovation.”
Henninger notes that Chile’s health minister never knew that this, nor the rest of the high tech devices which saved these guys, even existed. He continues, “In an open economy, you will never know what is out there on the leading developmental edge of this or that industry. But the reality behind the miracles is the same: Someone innovates something useful, makes money from it, and re-innovates, or someone else trumps their innovation. Most of the time, no one notices. All it does is create jobs, wealth and well-being. But without this system running in the background, without the year-over-year progress embedded in these capitalist innovations, those trapped miners would be dead.”
And yet on the campaign trail just last week BO mocked our “blind faith in the market.” The basic idea said this clueless individual, “is that if we put our blind faith in the market and we let corporations do whatever they want and we leave everybody else to fend for themselves, then America somehow automatically is going to grow and prosper."
Well, ya, that’s right.
BO and his companion levelers are soon to be shown the door.
Robert Craven
Quite the contrary is true. It was not like the Chilean miners; BO in no way is going to get anyone out of any hole. Only profit-driven innovation got the miners out. Obama has buried the US, not saved it, by trying to kill the very same.
Daniel Henninger writes that there was nothing Obama-like about it; it was in fact all about the Center Rock drill bit. “This is the miracle bit that drilled down to the trapped miners. Center Rock Inc. is a private company in Berlin, Pa. It has 74 employees. The drill's rig came from Schramm Inc. in West Chester, Pa. Seeing the disaster, Center Rock's president, Brandon Fisher, called the Chileans to offer his drill. Chile accepted. The miners are alive. The Center Rock drill is in fact a piece of tough technology developed by a small company in it for the money, for profit. That's why they innovated down-the-hole hammer drilling. If they make money, they can do more innovation.”
Henninger notes that Chile’s health minister never knew that this, nor the rest of the high tech devices which saved these guys, even existed. He continues, “In an open economy, you will never know what is out there on the leading developmental edge of this or that industry. But the reality behind the miracles is the same: Someone innovates something useful, makes money from it, and re-innovates, or someone else trumps their innovation. Most of the time, no one notices. All it does is create jobs, wealth and well-being. But without this system running in the background, without the year-over-year progress embedded in these capitalist innovations, those trapped miners would be dead.”
And yet on the campaign trail just last week BO mocked our “blind faith in the market.” The basic idea said this clueless individual, “is that if we put our blind faith in the market and we let corporations do whatever they want and we leave everybody else to fend for themselves, then America somehow automatically is going to grow and prosper."
Well, ya, that’s right.
BO and his companion levelers are soon to be shown the door.
Robert Craven
Monday, October 11, 2010
Castor Oil
From the left, specifically from Mark Halperin, political columnist for TIME.com. “... there is a growing perception that Obama's decisions are causing harm — that businesses are being hurt by the Administration's legislation and that economic recovery is stalling because of the uncertainty surrounding energy policy, health care, deficits, housing, immigration and spending.”
Certainly all of our cousins have know this stuff for months because they are encouraged to take this blog along with their castor oil. Instead of a cure for acne, ring worm, constipation, cerebral palsy and hair loss, our product merely provides a boost for those deficient in matters of history and economics.
And we see from our pal Halperin that the rest are now catching on, including most of BO’s once-fawning supporters. Take your medicine now kiddies.
Obams’s agenda of resuscitation had to fail, by definition. We all know why. ("Only businesses can create jobs via private investment, while economic-stimulus measures will fail to lower unemployment rates," says FedEx CEO and Chairman Frederick Smith.)
And of course the stimulus disaster was compounded by the health heist. Health was merely the vehicle anyway. There are no savings; 60% of Americans oppose the bill. That’s not the point. The point is control.
And so we have it. An extremist party that finally gained traction nearly put the US out of business; it most certainly put itself out of business.
The remedy need not be complex. To repeat, first, stop the damage - November. Next, make repairs - 2011. Finally, restore the Republic - 2012.
Robert Craven
Certainly all of our cousins have know this stuff for months because they are encouraged to take this blog along with their castor oil. Instead of a cure for acne, ring worm, constipation, cerebral palsy and hair loss, our product merely provides a boost for those deficient in matters of history and economics.
And we see from our pal Halperin that the rest are now catching on, including most of BO’s once-fawning supporters. Take your medicine now kiddies.
Obams’s agenda of resuscitation had to fail, by definition. We all know why. ("Only businesses can create jobs via private investment, while economic-stimulus measures will fail to lower unemployment rates," says FedEx CEO and Chairman Frederick Smith.)
And of course the stimulus disaster was compounded by the health heist. Health was merely the vehicle anyway. There are no savings; 60% of Americans oppose the bill. That’s not the point. The point is control.
And so we have it. An extremist party that finally gained traction nearly put the US out of business; it most certainly put itself out of business.
The remedy need not be complex. To repeat, first, stop the damage - November. Next, make repairs - 2011. Finally, restore the Republic - 2012.
Robert Craven
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Invention
Key is to close a pattern early, and with as little noise and as few words as possible.
We are pleased with results, past months.
In the case of Obama we predicted early on (Jan/10) that he would tank the Democratic party. That process is now nearing completion.
He’s put the party that JFK and Scoop would never have recognized anyway, out of business.
Extremists in the abstract are one thing. An extremist at the helm is quite another.
Americans will never forgive Obama’s attempt to steam-roll their liberties, that drastic change in life style - the major insertion of government control of their lives, BO’s plans to remake the US using health, education and energy as vehicles - the unprecedented federal intrusion into American industry and commerce. Don’t try this nonsense.
The final blow was BO’s operative's gestapo tactics in ram rodding the health heist down American throats. That was the give away. That which we had maintained all along suddenly became clear to the masses - health was the vehicle, not the end.
And so most who voted for this guy now understand that they invented their candidate.
They feel betrayed by someone who never existed.
Fools.
Robert Craven
We are pleased with results, past months.
In the case of Obama we predicted early on (Jan/10) that he would tank the Democratic party. That process is now nearing completion.
He’s put the party that JFK and Scoop would never have recognized anyway, out of business.
Extremists in the abstract are one thing. An extremist at the helm is quite another.
Americans will never forgive Obama’s attempt to steam-roll their liberties, that drastic change in life style - the major insertion of government control of their lives, BO’s plans to remake the US using health, education and energy as vehicles - the unprecedented federal intrusion into American industry and commerce. Don’t try this nonsense.
The final blow was BO’s operative's gestapo tactics in ram rodding the health heist down American throats. That was the give away. That which we had maintained all along suddenly became clear to the masses - health was the vehicle, not the end.
And so most who voted for this guy now understand that they invented their candidate.
They feel betrayed by someone who never existed.
Fools.
Robert Craven
Saturday, October 2, 2010
The Unions & Executive Ownership
Churchill: “Madam, would you sleep with me for five million pounds?”
Socialite: “My goodness, Mr. Churchill… Well, I suppose… we would have to discuss terms, of course… “
Churchill: “Would you sleep with me for five pounds?”
Socialite: “Mr. Churchill, what kind of woman do you think I am?!”
Churchill: “Madam, we’ve already established that. Now we are haggling about the price.”
GM's unions had a price; Obama paid it. Is there something nefarious hereabouts? Does a one-legged goose swim in a circle?
It’s well know that the unions and trial lawyers together own the Dem party. Let’s look at the unions.
Background: Today almost half of union members work for some level of government. Why would any independent, hard working American want to be union? Ninety-two percent of private industry workers don’t. And those that do, including their public sector brethren, are not your father’s labor movement types in hard hats. As Linda Chavez explains, “The labor movement used to be strongly pro-American, pro-defense, and very conservative on social issues. Today's union bosses have more in common with Michael Moore than George Meany.”
The media virtually ignores the corrupt relationship between the unions and the Democratic party, rarely looking at illegal campaign violations. OK, forget the crooks, just the power: For example, the two national teachers’ unions — the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) — contributed more than $70 million to campaigns during the 2007–2008 season, with 95 percent of contributions going to Democrats and left-leaning causes. When these types ask the left to jump, they ask, ‘How high?”. (worn phrase)
Specifics: Obama just announced a plan to “Renew and Expand America’s Roads, Railways and Runways.” The plan would add $50 billion more to the nearly $230 billion already allocated in the original trillion-dollar stimulus plan, for infrastructure.
Why the great urgency to pile on more $? Something to do with the midterm elections?
The president says he wants to “put people back to work” through a new “up front investment” in surface transportation, airports, and the air-traffic-control system. But guess what? Not all people, just some people. From Michelle Malkin: “The key is E.O. 13502, a union-friendly executive order signed by Obama in his first weeks in office, which essentially forces contractors who bid on large-scale public-construction projects worth $25 million or more to submit to union representation for their employees.”
Obama’s “project labor agreement” forces contractors to hand over exclusive bargaining control, pay inflated wages and benefits and fork over dues-money and pension funding to corrupt labor organizations. These agreements undermine a fair bidding process on projects which locked-out, nonunion laborers fund with their own tax dollars! Too much! (Keep in mind dear readers that in the construction industry, 85% of the workers are non-union by choice.)
The result? Well, Boston’s notorious Big Dig was a union-only construction project thanks to a Massachusetts government-mandated PLA. The original $2.8 billion price tag for the project shot to $22 billion in state and federal taxpayer subsidies thanks in large part to ballooning labor costs. Oh, that.
BO’s connection at the hip to unions costs all of us plenty. It’s a scheme that raises the cost of doing business and bars ten of thousands of skilled, non union workers from securing work.
Oh sure, BO’s concerned with our highways and byways, concerned with America, sure he is.
Robert Craven
Socialite: “My goodness, Mr. Churchill… Well, I suppose… we would have to discuss terms, of course… “
Churchill: “Would you sleep with me for five pounds?”
Socialite: “Mr. Churchill, what kind of woman do you think I am?!”
Churchill: “Madam, we’ve already established that. Now we are haggling about the price.”
GM's unions had a price; Obama paid it. Is there something nefarious hereabouts? Does a one-legged goose swim in a circle?
It’s well know that the unions and trial lawyers together own the Dem party. Let’s look at the unions.
Background: Today almost half of union members work for some level of government. Why would any independent, hard working American want to be union? Ninety-two percent of private industry workers don’t. And those that do, including their public sector brethren, are not your father’s labor movement types in hard hats. As Linda Chavez explains, “The labor movement used to be strongly pro-American, pro-defense, and very conservative on social issues. Today's union bosses have more in common with Michael Moore than George Meany.”
The media virtually ignores the corrupt relationship between the unions and the Democratic party, rarely looking at illegal campaign violations. OK, forget the crooks, just the power: For example, the two national teachers’ unions — the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) — contributed more than $70 million to campaigns during the 2007–2008 season, with 95 percent of contributions going to Democrats and left-leaning causes. When these types ask the left to jump, they ask, ‘How high?”. (worn phrase)
Specifics: Obama just announced a plan to “Renew and Expand America’s Roads, Railways and Runways.” The plan would add $50 billion more to the nearly $230 billion already allocated in the original trillion-dollar stimulus plan, for infrastructure.
Why the great urgency to pile on more $? Something to do with the midterm elections?
The president says he wants to “put people back to work” through a new “up front investment” in surface transportation, airports, and the air-traffic-control system. But guess what? Not all people, just some people. From Michelle Malkin: “The key is E.O. 13502, a union-friendly executive order signed by Obama in his first weeks in office, which essentially forces contractors who bid on large-scale public-construction projects worth $25 million or more to submit to union representation for their employees.”
Obama’s “project labor agreement” forces contractors to hand over exclusive bargaining control, pay inflated wages and benefits and fork over dues-money and pension funding to corrupt labor organizations. These agreements undermine a fair bidding process on projects which locked-out, nonunion laborers fund with their own tax dollars! Too much! (Keep in mind dear readers that in the construction industry, 85% of the workers are non-union by choice.)
The result? Well, Boston’s notorious Big Dig was a union-only construction project thanks to a Massachusetts government-mandated PLA. The original $2.8 billion price tag for the project shot to $22 billion in state and federal taxpayer subsidies thanks in large part to ballooning labor costs. Oh, that.
BO’s connection at the hip to unions costs all of us plenty. It’s a scheme that raises the cost of doing business and bars ten of thousands of skilled, non union workers from securing work.
Oh sure, BO’s concerned with our highways and byways, concerned with America, sure he is.
Robert Craven
The Unforgiven
(We borrow from Eastwood.)
McGovern never got traction, thus he did not disable his entire party. The warm and fuzzy stuff sounds just great until it hits the pocket book, no longer the abstract. This is why BO put the Dems out of business.
The rank and file will not forgive Obama. He made them out to be fools.
At the family picnic in April there was the sense of loss, the sense of, “We’re sunk.” Not so fast we told out dear cousins. But conventional wisdom has it that none of this stuff can be reversed, especially the health plan they lamented. Wrong.
Americans throw some slack from time to time, around the margins; they don’t capitulate wholesale.
Robert Craven
McGovern never got traction, thus he did not disable his entire party. The warm and fuzzy stuff sounds just great until it hits the pocket book, no longer the abstract. This is why BO put the Dems out of business.
The rank and file will not forgive Obama. He made them out to be fools.
At the family picnic in April there was the sense of loss, the sense of, “We’re sunk.” Not so fast we told out dear cousins. But conventional wisdom has it that none of this stuff can be reversed, especially the health plan they lamented. Wrong.
Americans throw some slack from time to time, around the margins; they don’t capitulate wholesale.
Robert Craven
Obama's & McGovern's Fine Work
The last candidate who triggered a similar problem for the Democrats was of course our progressive pal George McGovern; that would be 1972. We recall the convention - a free for all. Nominated for the VP slot besides Eagleton were: Mao, Jerry Rubin, Ben Spock and Archie Bunker. By the time this part was over, it was 3am; thus, McGovern’s prime time acceptance speech was prime time only for Guam.
Just as well. McGovern’s progressive ideas were even loonier than BO’s, shocking even the normally toady media. The Wash Post called McGovern’s welfare state “horrendous,” and a “pernicious extension of the power of the state.” Wow!! Time called McGovern’s proposals a “radical scheme,” and calculated that his proposals for expanded welfare, universal health care and other social programs would break the bank.
McGovern lost every state but two. However, he did not take his entire party over the cliff; many Dem’s remained loyal to the rest of the ticket.
Obama’s work has simply been more thorough.
Naturally BO will continue to blame conservatives and Tea Party types for his problems. Big mistake. His problem is the Democratic rank and file, who as Vic Hansen illustrates, “are now discovering that just as Obama could take them individually to great heights.....so too could he being them down collectively to unprecedented depths.”
These, our deer-in-the-headlights.
We must admit this is fun; in fact it’s exquisite to watch WH staffers (Rahm the latest) who like BO are just soooo wise and soooo sure they were the best and brightest, and soooo contemptuous of the rest of us who needed their guidance and who would surely bend over as they spun the crisis for big government; it’s plain fun to watch these types crawl out the back door.
Robert Craven
Just as well. McGovern’s progressive ideas were even loonier than BO’s, shocking even the normally toady media. The Wash Post called McGovern’s welfare state “horrendous,” and a “pernicious extension of the power of the state.” Wow!! Time called McGovern’s proposals a “radical scheme,” and calculated that his proposals for expanded welfare, universal health care and other social programs would break the bank.
McGovern lost every state but two. However, he did not take his entire party over the cliff; many Dem’s remained loyal to the rest of the ticket.
Obama’s work has simply been more thorough.
Naturally BO will continue to blame conservatives and Tea Party types for his problems. Big mistake. His problem is the Democratic rank and file, who as Vic Hansen illustrates, “are now discovering that just as Obama could take them individually to great heights.....so too could he being them down collectively to unprecedented depths.”
These, our deer-in-the-headlights.
We must admit this is fun; in fact it’s exquisite to watch WH staffers (Rahm the latest) who like BO are just soooo wise and soooo sure they were the best and brightest, and soooo contemptuous of the rest of us who needed their guidance and who would surely bend over as they spun the crisis for big government; it’s plain fun to watch these types crawl out the back door.
Robert Craven
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Craft-A-President
Nobody likes poor Obama.
The far left, the so-called progressives are upset because BO did not, “speak the truth, tell us and the country what was really happening in the corridors of power and what the constraints were that he was facing,” as Mike Lerner lamented in the SF Chron the other day.
The Dem rank and file are upset because he is about to put them out of business.
Where in the world did these folk, especially the far left get the idea that BO was going to move mountains for them, that he intended to face any "constraints," that he shared their (misguided) idealism? Because he had the most partisan record in the Senate? That wasn’t conviction for goodness sake, but convenience.
BO is a typical Chicago pol who knew how to work the system and lever his being half black, and, he never made a secret of it! Where did anybody get the idea this guy was some kind of visionary, or dreamer? Where did anybody get the idea that this guy was anything but an empty suit? Accomplishments? Were waiting........
The left simply crafted out of BO their perfect likeness of a US president. It’s made up! The nursery crowd, ever fawning, had theirs, and now they’re pissed. Moderates had one and now they’re pissed. Chavez and Castro had one; now they’re really upset. These are all caricatures that never existed!
In the mean time Obama is simply being Obama, thank you very much. By acting in character, Chicago style, and allowing Pelosi and others to force the health heist down the throats of Americans, he sealed his party’s fate.
Robert Craven
The far left, the so-called progressives are upset because BO did not, “speak the truth, tell us and the country what was really happening in the corridors of power and what the constraints were that he was facing,” as Mike Lerner lamented in the SF Chron the other day.
The Dem rank and file are upset because he is about to put them out of business.
Where in the world did these folk, especially the far left get the idea that BO was going to move mountains for them, that he intended to face any "constraints," that he shared their (misguided) idealism? Because he had the most partisan record in the Senate? That wasn’t conviction for goodness sake, but convenience.
BO is a typical Chicago pol who knew how to work the system and lever his being half black, and, he never made a secret of it! Where did anybody get the idea this guy was some kind of visionary, or dreamer? Where did anybody get the idea that this guy was anything but an empty suit? Accomplishments? Were waiting........
The left simply crafted out of BO their perfect likeness of a US president. It’s made up! The nursery crowd, ever fawning, had theirs, and now they’re pissed. Moderates had one and now they’re pissed. Chavez and Castro had one; now they’re really upset. These are all caricatures that never existed!
In the mean time Obama is simply being Obama, thank you very much. By acting in character, Chicago style, and allowing Pelosi and others to force the health heist down the throats of Americans, he sealed his party’s fate.
Robert Craven
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